Selkirk plastics plant hit with third environmental fine in three years

Third penalty for environmental violations at factory

Brian Nearin, Times Union

By Brian Nearing

Published 6:03 pm, Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Times Union Staff photograph by Philip Kamrass -- A flag for SABIC Innovative Plastics hangs within sight of a tower from the plant's cogenerating facility, in Selkirk, NY Thursday September 6, 2007. The Saudi company purchased the plant from General Electric recently. FOR LARRY RULISON SUNDAY STORY.
(PHILIP KAMRASS)

Owners of the Capital Region's largest plastics and resins factory have been hit with their third state fine for environmental violations in as many years.

SABIC Innovative Plastics paid a $16,000 fine to the Department of Environmental Conservation for violations including improper labeling of hazardous waste; failure to file an emergency contingency plan with local police, fire and health officials; failure to report on a system meant to clean waste from its landfill leachate; and for not having proper spill controls for a chemical tank in a resins lab.

The fine was based on an October inspection of the plant on Noryl Avenue in Selkirk, and follows fines totaling about $241,000 in 2011 and 2013.

Company spokesman Jason Forget said Wednesday none of the violations "posed a danger to either our employees or the public. SABIC is committed to living up to its regulatory requirements, and when an issue is identified we work to remedy it as quickly as possible." The plant is about two miles south of the upscale bedroom community of Delmar, and is near the town park, athletic fields and pool.

Forget said the violations included "improper packaging and labeling of used fluorescent bulbs and aerosol cans, not having lids closed on small containers, not preparing or submitting certain documentation, having cracks in the coating of dikes designed to contain material in case of a leak from storage tanks, and not properly managing a 1-gallon container in a laboratory."

SABIC, short for Saudi Arabian Basic Industries, bought the plant in 2007 as part of its $11.6 billion global acquisition of General Electric Plastics. While under GE ownership, the plant had never been found in violation of air pollution rules by DEC. The Saudi Arabian government owns 70 percent of SABIC shares, with the remainder held by private investors in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The 2013 violations included having numerous lines at the plant containing chemicals directly exposed to the air, instances in which air pollution equipment was bypassed in error by workers or was plugged, and more than 100 lines and a pump used for chemicals that had not been checked as required for potential leaks.

All three state pollution settlements were signed by SABIC Vice President Michael Walsh and DEC Regional Director Eugene Kelly. Under the 2011 agreement, SABIC also agreed to file plans with DEC on how pollution control procedures would be strengthened, and thus had part of its potential fine suspended.

The new violations will not result in DEC seeking to collect any earlier suspended fines, according to DEC.

SABIC Innovative Plastics is a multibillion-dollar company with operations in more than 35 countries and approximately 9,000 employees worldwide, according to the company's website.